NEW YORK, April 17: The US decision to sell 24 F-16s jet fighters to Pakistan has given a big boost to the American aircraft manufacturers who are eyeing the bigger prize —India , which could buy as many as 126 sophisticated planes and much more.

For Lockheed-Martin, said a report in Saturday’s New York Times, the potential sales to India meant that it might be able to keep alive its aging F-16 production line and save jobs in Fort Worth, where nearly 5,000 people work on the plane.

Alternatively, the report said, Boeing could benefit if India pushed for something other than the F-16. That could mean new business for Boeing in St Louis, where 5,000 people now build the F/A-18 Super Hornet and the F-15 Strike Eagle, high-performance jets now exclusively used by the American military.

“The jet sales to Pakistan have a high symbolic value, but little in the way of business promise,” the paper said. .

On the same day last month that the United States announced that it would sell F-16 fighter jets to Pakistan, President George W. Bush made a 15-minute call to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh during which he “confided” that his administration had decided to allow fighter jet sales to India as well, according to the Times.

“Newspapers around the world put the Pakistani deal in headlines,” the Times said. “But it was the 15-minute phone call that was heard loud and clear by American military contractors.”

“Two dozen new F-16’s will be made available to Pakistan as a reward for that country’s aid in the war on terror and will strengthen a fleet of about 40 F-16’s acquired before Congress halted sales in 1990 to protest Pakistan’s nuclear ambitions,” the newspaper said.

“But the decision to open up the Indian market means that contractors now have the chance to sell up to 126 fighter jets — with price tags starting at $35 million each — to a country with an aging military fleet of 800 jets, none of them made in America” the paper said.

“The real prize is India,” said Richard Aboulafia, a military analyst at the Teal Group, an aerospace consulting firm in Fairfax, Virginia.

“India would have gone on its merry way,” Mr Aboulafia added, “but the announcement of Pakistan getting the F-16’s changes the game. For years, India has coasted on Russian and locally made fighter jets. Now, if its adversary gets real new American planes, it has to have them, too.”

Moreover, any initial deals could lead to more Indian arms sales of all types as New Delhi has announced a lavish spending plan to strengthen the country’s military and upgrade its armaments, the Times said. High on its list are early warning and missile defence systems, nuclear fuel and technologies and space-related technologies.

Some critics denounced the Bush administration’s move as contributing to a South Asian arms race. “But from the government’s perspective, weapons sales to Pakistan and India strengthen the American presence on the Chinese border and open new markets throughout Asia for military contractors, which are looking more to foreign buyers as the Pentagon budget comes under pressure,” according to the Times.